


Got Your Message

by iamsnowwhite



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, post 2x16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2015-06-27
Packaged: 2018-04-06 09:52:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4217157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamsnowwhite/pseuds/iamsnowwhite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clarke has been gone for weeks and her only connection to her people is through the messages she exchanges with Lincoln. Their system is working fine until Bellamy finds out...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Got Your Message

**Author's Note:**

> This was a requests, and it was only supposed to be about a thousand words... I got a bit carried away to say the least.

Weeks have gone by and it's hot as hell now. Clarke has already rolled her pants up as high as they go and has taken off all the outerwear she can.

She wonders how they're doing back at camp. If they are as hot as she is, as sunburned as she is. But she only allows herself to dwell on that for a while.

Then, it’s back to survival.

She doesn’t know what she expected when she left all those weeks ago... But she certainly did not get that. It is much harder to hunt on her own, and skinning animals was beyond her... Since the weather got hotter, she has stuck close to a stream she found about a half day's journey from the old dropship. So water has not been a problem.

Any time she encounters a problem, she sends a message to Lincoln. At first, she was too proud to do so, but then she couldn’t find food for a couple of days... So she finally sent him something.

She knew the route he walked everyday, and left him a message that only he would understand.

They had sort of an understanding before she left. He didn’t make her stay and understood why she needed to leave. Clarke had so much respect for the man, and she knew he had the same for her. On days when Clarke was feeling lonely, they would meet up and talk about how everyone back at camp is doing. Lincoln would always bring her some food from camp, but never ask Clarke to return.

Sometimes her notes would tell him she was in trouble, sometimes they would tell him that she needed his advice. But today, it simply told him that she was perfectly fine. She would occasionally send him messages to let him know she was ok. With everything he had to worry about, she felt she shouldn’t be one of them.

Lincoln was returning to camp, when he ran into Bellamy.

“Going hunting?” Lincoln asks.

Bellamy shakes his head, “No, I’m coming back, we didn’t get anything today.”

Lincoln took in the sight of Bellamy. He hadn’t seen much of the man lately, their work has separated them. He looks thinner and has dark circles under his eyes. However, most of them do... Most of her friends don’t sleep, they worry instead. Yes, it was different with Bellamy, this much Lincoln knew. He knew that Bellamy took more shifts hunting so he could look for her. And also so he could be alone.

Lincoln forgot he still had Clarke’s note in his hand, but Bellamy sees it and asks what it is.

He tries to stash it in his pocket, but Bellamy already grabbed it. Curious this one.

“It’s a note,” Lincoln says simply.

“It’s a bunch of pictures and random letters...” Bellamy almost laughs as he tries to decipher the meaning. “What does it say?”

“Does it matter?”

“Well now it does, why so secretive?”

Lincoln takes a deep breath, “Bellamy...”

Bellamy gives him a suspicious look, “Just tell me what it says.”

“It says Clarke is doing well today.”

Bellamy swallows, hard. It felt like someone had stolen the air in his lungs. He hated when people talked about her. Especially the Arkers, they all said she would never come back and that she was probably dead by now. Bellamy would always threaten them that they’d be dead too if they didn’t shut the hell up. The mere mention of her name made his heart stop.

“She’s ok? You’ve spoken to her? Why haven’t you told me?” he asks, talking a mile a minute.

“Bellamy, I am just doing what she wants.”

“So she wants to be all alone? She wants to be out there by herself with no help?”

“I’ve been helping her.”

Bellamy is itching to go out and find her, he needs Lincoln to tell him where she is.

“Take me to her,” he requests.

“You know I can’t do that.”

Bellamy’s eyes widen in anger, “The fuck you can’t.”

“Bellamy, don’t you want what’s best for her?”

“What’s best for her is being back here where she has her friends and people who can help her! Not being all by herself where she could get hurt!” He knows he’s being selfish. He knows that Clarke should be able to do as she pleases, and that if being away is helping her then she should stay where she is. But he’s angry, and misses her more than he will ever admit. He is a protector, he fights to keep the things he cares about safe. And he can’t do that right now because the woman he cares about is god knows where facing god knows what on her own.

Lincoln doesn’t reply, instead he looks at Bellamy with pity. Bellamy doesn’t want his pity. He wants Clarke.

“Could you send her a message from me?” he sounds desperate and he knows it.

Lincoln sighs, “I suppose that wouldn’t hurt... What would you like to tell her?”

“Tell her, tell her I miss her. Tell her that things aren’t the same without her here,” Bellamy says after putting some thought into his words.

Lincoln nods and promises Bellamy he will write the message when they get back to camp.

They walk the rest of the way in silence. Lincoln is usually quiet, that’s just who he is, but it is strange for Bellamy. Bellamy always had something to rant about. His silence startled Lincoln. He knew that Bellamy felt more for Clarke then he let on. It was quite obvious in the way he acted around her. He has seen the effect her absence has had on Bellamy.

He wishes he could show Bellamy where Clarke is, he knows it would make Bellamy happy. And it would also make Octavia feel better as well. She spends a lot of time worrying about her brother. She sees how different he is now. But on the other hand, Clarke is his friend, and he wants to keep her safe as well. He promised her he would keep their communications a secret, and he is a man who keeps his promises.

When they finally get back to Camp Jaha, Bellamy insists on watching Lincoln write the message. He wants to learn a little about this weird language he and Clarke communicate in so he can hopefully read some of the other messages she sends.

Lincoln lets him hold the message from Clarke, and he feels a little closer to her.

“I’m sorry, Bellamy. This is as far as I can include you.”

Bellamy nods, “I understand.”

_He doesn’t._

“I will let you know if she replies,” Lincoln tells him.

“ _If_? What do you mean if?”

“Bellamy-”

“I know...”

With that, Bellamy sulks back to his tent. He decides to skip dinner that night.

\---

Clarke looks around, making sure no one will see her when she dashes across the small clearing to get the message Lincoln left. When she doesn’t see anyone, she makes a break for it. Her feet have pretty much grown into her shoes by now. She does a lot of running and a lot of walking, and only takes her boots off at night to sleep. She nearly slips when she steps in a pool of mud, but then she grabs the piece of paper and runs back into the trees.

She jogs back to her little camp, one she will have for about three days before she moves a little further down the stream, before reading what Lincoln has written for her.

_Clarke,_

_Bellamy found out about our messages and wanted me to tell you something for him. He said that he misses you. I do not want to butt into your relationship with him, but he needs you Clarke. More so than everyone else. He is not doing well without you. You know I would never force you to come back, but I encourage you to at least see Bellamy._

_Lincoln_

After she reads the message, Clarke feels her heart sink. When she first left, she thought she would have to worry about Bellamy least of all. He was strong, strong enough to be her co leader and partner in most things they did.

She was clearly wrong.

Maybe Bellamy did care for her... But she doesn’t want to think about that. Because if she did, she’d realize that she cares for Bellamy too. Man, does she care. If something happened to him, her world might fall apart all over again. It seemed like the better option to her to not know. Not know how he’s doing. Not know if he hates her.

But now, she knows. She knows that he is doing shitty without her there. He probably feels as bad as she does.

The thought of Bellamy crying himself to sleep, or not being able to sleep at all due to the constant tossing and turning makes her sick to her stomach. Knowing that just a couple of miles away, he could feel like the world is crushing him. The whole planet is just sitting on his chest. Thinking about Bellamy not being able to breathe because the thought of losing her was too much...

Because that is how she felt. How she still feels some nights. Some early mornings she feels it hit her like giant rock, the longing and loneliness.

Clarke can’t do anything but cry.

She scares away all the birds around her with her violent sobs which she doesn’t try to hide or stop.

She knows she has to stop, the noise will attract unwanted guests, but now that she’s started crying, she doesn’t know if she can ever stop. All her emotion had been bottled up since she left. Whenever she thought of the friends she left behind, she pushed it away. Emotions have no place when you’re trying to survive on your own.

Finally drying her cheeks, she hears a branch snap somewhere behind her. She quickly grabs the spear she made from the ground next to her, ready to take down the deer that’s approaching.

If only it was a deer.

Her eyes search where she heard the noise, looking for the fluffy and delicious animal.

Instead, she sees painted faces staring back at her. Suddenly, she forgets all about her friends back home and her feelings for Bellamy. She needs to fight now.

Clarke waits for them to make a move first. They both take a few steps forward and she sees it is a man and a woman. The woman carries with her a knife and the man has nothing. But he is huge. Clarke has no idea what to do first...

The man steps forward first and Clarke throws her spear. It connects with his arm and he stumbles backward, falling to the ground. Then, the woman charges at Clarke and she jumps to the side, narrowly missing the knife.

Clarke reaches around to grab the woman’s arm and twists it around her back to immobilize her. She then kicks the back of her leg hears a loud _POP_ and knows she’s dislocated the woman’s knee.

Clarke didn’t see the man get up and has no time do anything before his fist connects with her face. When she regains her bearings, she takes a step back before kicking the man in the stomach directly below his armor. He gets the wind knocked out of him and Clarke takes the time to bolt forward and grab the spear again.

Charging at the man, Clarke uses the spear to stab him in the neck and he goes down for the last time.

Thinking she’s won, Clarke takes a breath.

Then, she feels excruciating pain in her left thigh. She looks down to see a wooden arrow sticking out of her leg. She hadn’t noticed the woman get back up and shoot an arrow.

Every part of Clarke knows not to pull it out until she can assess the injury, but a primal instinct tells her to yank it out, maybe use it to kill this woman. She decides to agree with the rational side of her and leaves it in.

The woman runs towards her and Clarke manages to punch her in the throat. Then, the face, then the face again. The last punch causes the woman to fall backwards, unconscious. Clarke grabs her hair and slams the woman’s head back against a rock.

She then stumbles over to her things, finding her long sleeve shirt and tearing off one of the sleeves. The arrow isn’t anywhere near her femoral artery, and Clarke is very thankful for that. Her hands are shaking as she removes the arrow, cleans it using water from the canteen Lincoln gave her, and wraps the sleeve tightly around the wound.

Using whatever energy she has left, she heaves herself off the ground and slowly makes her way to the spot where she leaves the messages for Lincoln.  

Her handwriting is messy as she writes the note in English.

_Need help! Hostile Grounder attack. Badly injured._

_I’ll be at the stream where you first met me._

_Please hurry_

She’s losing blood fast, but she hobbles with one hand pressed to the wound. She makes it to the stream shortly after and collapses there.

\---

“Bellamy!” Lincoln shouts as he runs into camp.

Bellamy is startled and runs to meet up with him, “What’s wrong?”

Lincoln simply hands him Clarke’s latest note and Bellamy doesn’t wait to break out into a run. Lincoln quickly follows and barks out the location of where she said to meet.

Bellamy doesn’t think he has ever run this fast before. His adrenaline is through the roof and he can feel his heart beating in his hair.

He gets there before Lincoln an kneels beside a sleeping Clarke. She has a bandage wrapped around her leg that is way too bloody for his liking, and she has the gnarliest black eye he’s ever seen.

After briefly taking in her appearance, Bellamy places his hand on her cheek while the other brushes back some of her hair.

“Clarke, princess can you hear me?” he says quietly.

She groans and her eyes flutter open, “Bellamy?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m here princess. I’m right here.”

“There’s a lot of blood,” she says, tiredly.

“We’re gonna get you back to camp,” Bellamy says, locking his arm arm under her knees and lifting her into the air. “Can you put pressure on it? Can you do that for me, Clarke?”

She gives him a weak nod as Lincoln runs up behind them.

“You got her?” he quickly asks Bellamy.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

They jog their way back to camp while trying not to jostle Clarke around too much in Bellamy’s arms. That black eye looks bad enough already, who knows how bad it hurts.

When they get close to the gates, Lincoln runs ahead to let the guards know to let them in. And after he gets inside, he runs to get Abby to let her know what’s happened.

Bellamy makes it to the medical tent about a minute later and lays Clarke down where Abby instructs him to.

With the new lighting, Bellamy can see how pale Clarke is. It makes the purple and blue around her eye stand out even more.

Abby starts by stitching up the wound on Clarke’s thigh. She said it wasn’t infected and was just a flesh wound. And after cleaning a few other cuts Bellamy didn’t notice Clarke had, she does a few weird things to determine if Clarke has a concussion. Bellamy has never been more relieved when Abby tells him that Clarke will be just fine.

“She lost a lot of blood, but not enough to cause any real concern. She just needs a few days rest,” Abby says, looking as relieved as Bellamy feels. It is her daughter after all.

Bellamy remains in his seat next to Clarke’s bed. He holds her hand even though he knows he shouldn’t. He knows he should feel a bit guilty, she didn’t want to come back, she didn’t want to see him. But now all her friends were probably on their way here to mob her and ask her a million questions.

“Clarke, do you want to see anyone?” he asks her. “Do you want anyone in here.”

She shakes her head with a wince that Bellamy knows is not from the pain in her leg.

He takes a deep breath, “Then I’ll go too.”

He stands shakily but Clarke grabs his wrist, “No I want- you can stay.”

Bellamy tries to hide his smile as he sits back down beside her. Eventually she falls back asleep, leaving Bellamy alone with his thoughts.

Figures that something this serious would be the reason he and Clarke and reunited. They never do anything the easy way.

As soon as Bellamy saw her lying in the grass all bloody and bruised, he knew he couldn’t deny it anymore. He is in love with Clarke Griffin.

And as soon as he thought that, everything changed. He felt himself get even more scared as he rushed her back to camp. He found himself getting butterflies in his stomach when she told him to stay. Bellamy doesn’t fall in love with girls, too much heartache and pain. But he has fallen for Clarke.

He watches her sleep and can hear what sounds like Raven’s voice fightin with Abby about coming in to see Clarke. Bellamy relishes in the fact that he alone gets to stay with her. It’s selfish and he knows it, but Clarke picked him.

His next thought is just that, why did Clarke let him stay?

The first thing that came to his mind was that she was grateful that he saved her. He was the one who came to her rescue and she wanted him there to watch out for her.

The next thing that came to his mind was that she felt the same as he did. But that was ridiculous. How could Clarke be in love with him... He was a lame excuse for a man who falls apart when his partner leaves. Clarke could do better that’s for sure...

She wakes up a while later, searching for Bellamy’s hand. He takes the hand that reached out for him and she offers him a weak smile.

“Lincoln came and got you?” she asks.

“Yeah... I guess he needed my help or-”

“No,” Clarke cuts him off. “He knew I wanted you there.”

“What do you mean?”

Clarke looks away from him before meeting his gaze once more.

“Lincoln and I, we would meet sometimes. He would bring me supplies, and tell me about life back at camp, you know everyone here. He’d tell me about you because I’d always ask... I didn’t want to think about you for long though. I missed you too much and it just hurt. I got the message that Lincoln gave me, the one from you. Bellamy, you mean a lot- you mean everything to me. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for, Clarke.”

“Of course I do! Look at you...”

“The way I look is my own damn fault, princess.”

“Bellamy, do you know why I wanted you to stay?”

“I sure as hell get the feeling you’re gonna tell me anyway.”

She laughs and tries to slap him but he only moves away.

“I wanted you to stay because I love you Bellamy,” she tells him.

Bellamy’s lips part in shock and he stares at her with wide eyes, “You do?”

She nods.

His lips curl into a smile, “Well princess, I love you too.”

She smiles too and Bellamy feels better than he has in months.

He and Clarke stay in that room for hours. She tells him about some of the good things that happened while she was away. Like once, she got close enough to a baby deer that she could pet it. Or this other time, she figured out how to rig a trap all by herself.

Bellamy didn’t have too many stories like that, so he just listened.

It almost felt surreal to him, that Clarke was right there. And she is ok. Perfectly fine and she loves him.

Looking back, he wouldn't trade what happened for anything. Who cares about those weeks when he felt like nothing mattered? Because now he matters, to Clarke. The way he feels now makes up for those days he spent alone with a broken heart. Because now Clarke is back! She is here to mend his broken heart and to help it not be so stone cold anymore.

Clarke stays in the medical tent for a couple of days while she recovers, and Bellamy is there for the whole time. She finally says it's ok for her friends to come see her and Raven burst through the door not a minute later. Monty is next, followed by Jasper. Smiles fill the room along with a few tears, but everyone is happy.

Bellamy helps Clarke walk out of the tent after their friends leave. She's a little shaky, and her thigh still hurts. But that's only half the reason she's clutching his arm (what? he has nice arms...)

Clarke didn’t want to come back. She wanted something new and different... But she didn’t get that. She got sadness and loneliness.

Now she was hanging on the arm of Bellamy Blake. This is something she never thought she would do. But now she is back and she’s happy about it. All because of him. 


End file.
